USA TODAY International Edition
Somalia lurches toward democratic rule
Delays, allegations of corruption mar complex election
“We are hearing that corruption is high. We are hearing people have been excluded from becoming candidates.” Mursal Saney, deputy director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA Africa’s most chaotic country is struggling to elect its first democratic government in a half- century.
Given its recent history of war and turmoil, it’s not surprising that Somalia’s fledging effort at democracy has been marred by delays, corruption and allegations of vote- buying.
Since October, people have gone to polling stations across the country to cast ballots as part of a complex process to choose members of parliament who will vote for a new president and prime minister. The goal is to install the Horn of Africa nation’s first representative leadership since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ousted a popularly elected government in a 1969 military coup.
He was overthrown in 1991, engulfing Somalia in a bloody civil war — first between clan militias and then by the al- Shabab terrorist group, which continues to con- trol swaths of territory.
“The last 25 years have been particularly bad with ... the state destroyed,” said Michael Keating, the U. N. special representative for Somalia. This is “the first time since 1969 that the Somalis are attempting to put together a rules- based process involving quite a large number of people to bring about a peaceful transfer of power.”
Though Somalis were promised a direct election for 2016, political leaders instead designed an indirect vote: 14,025 delegates chosen by 135 clan elders are electing members of the lower house of parliament. The clan elders are choosing the upper house members, and the two houses of parliament will then elect a president and prime minister in February.
The country’s last parliamentary election took place in 1984 but was hardly democratic: Strongman Siad Barre only allowed voters to approve a list of 171 members of parliament his regime had chosen.
An indirect process was created for the latest elections because Somalia has no court system to handle disputes and no national census to register voters.
For many Somalis, the lack of promised universal suffrage represents a continuation of government by a powerful elite.
“We are hearing that corruption is high. We are hearing people have been excluded from becoming candidates, and regional administrators are abusing their power,” said Mursal Saney, deputy director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Mogadishu. “It’s unfair to empower a political elite that already was dominated and to keep others outside the power.”
During negotiations by clan elders on whom to choose, seats were being sold for as much as $ 1.3 million, according to one official involved in the electoral process who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
In a country where 73% of the population lives below the poverty line, many Somalis see the widespread graft as an indication that the elites aren’t serving the country’s pressing needs.
“We as a civil society would like for the money that is being spent on vote- buying to be spent on the establishment of social services like schools, hospitals, clean water, electricity,” said Abdullahi M. Shirwa of Somalia Peace Line, a non- profit group in this capital city.
Jiiddu Clan elder Suldan Warsame Aliyow admitted that the election has involved some misconduct, but few of the allegations could be proven by the Independent Election Dispute Resolution Committees.